Rain did not stop the Raiders STEP-Up drug prevention initiative on Saturday night. Tamaqua Area High School hosted a free event as part of an ongoing drug prevention initiative at the high school.

Originally, the event was to be hosted outside in the stadium, but was moved indoors due to rain.The students were able to enjoy a night with their friends playing a tournament of ultimate Frisbee, cornhole and enjoying free food. The high school also had various games and events such as Jenga and a bounce castle.The highlight of the night was a showing of the movie "The Blind Side," licensing courtesy of the Bethany Evangelical Church in Tamaqua. They also showed two short videos explaining the dangers of drugs and addiction."Initially it started as a prevention, education program and this is kind of the culminating event to just give the kids a fun, pro-social event," Cathy Miorelli said.The purpose of the event and similar events held by Raiders STEP-Up is to promote clean, fun alternatives for the high school students. Schuylkill County Drug and Alcohol awarded the high school with a grant to do a sober event as well as a grant from the Attorney General's office. They plan to hold another event this fall.Students who are a part of STEP-Up wore donated T-shirts that displayed different statistics of drug use."They were given these T-shirts which are made to be like walking billboards so that the students come up and ask them 'What does your shirt mean?' We equip them with cards … explaining what the statistics were," Miorelli said.Alex Ho, a 17-year-old junior at Tamaqua Area High School, said,"The T-shirts have various numbers on them to show statistics that give information for certain drug statistics. Only 5 percent of people is the recovery rate for those who struggle with addiction and came out of it."Students got involved with the various activities throughout the night and enjoyed the free food that was donated from various locals.A sober event like this is exactly what some students need on a Saturday night."I've noticed it through family members and things like that. I think it's something that people should know about. It's just the awareness that there's no way this ends up good," Ho said.